Another girl who is dead-set upon breaking down any and all gender barriers is 17 year-old Kelly Marren. Kelly is on track to be the next Elena Hight, Kelly Clark or Gretchen Bleiler, slaughtering it in pipes across the globe and proving that there is indeed no glass ceiling when it comes to modern-day pipe riding. Locking down a spot on the PacSun USASA team as one of their standout pipe riders, Kelly showed up at Nationals, threw down a backside 9 in her run (yes, a back nine) and nearly missed the top-spot on the podium, coming home with an impressive second place finish in the Open Class. Not bad for a 17 year-old, eh? SNOWBOARDER Magazine got wind of Kelly’s talent and she was soon whisked away to their inaugural event, The LAUNCH, in which the world’s best riders under 18 were presented with the park and pipe of their dreams, and young Kelly let loose and made her impression; mainly in the landings of jumps and pipe walls, cause the girl stomped everything.

New Zealand is the only country I know that would allow a racecar to jump a snowboard jump next to a snowboarder on an ordinary sunny winter's day. This summer was, as expected, complete with its own adventures and surprises.

I traveled down to the South Island of New Zealand to compete in the FIS World Cup. The competition didn't go as well as I hoped, but on the bright side, I still provided some entertainment for all Kiwis' watching the event. I, hands down, won the best crash of the day on a backside 900 attempt which a friend accurately described as a "half a rodeo to face deck, a face bounce off the deck, to heel edge catch on the wall, and head smack in the flats." (Don't worry Miah, no more concussions. I surprisingly walked away from the crash injury free!